{"id":81475,"date":"2025-11-18T18:01:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T17:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=81475"},"modified":"2025-11-18T19:37:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T18:37:44","slug":"gjirokastra-becomes-the-chess-capital-200-participants-from-albania-and-kosovo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/gjirokastra-becomes-the-chess-capital-200-participants-from-albania-and-kosovo\/","title":{"rendered":"Gjirokastra becomes the chess capital, 200 participants from Albania and Kosovo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For about a week, the city of Gjirokastra has turned into the chess capital of Albania, hosting 200 participants from Albania and Kosovo.<\/p>\n<p>The event has attracted great interest, featuring a variety of chess disciplines in which competitors can take part.<\/p>\n<p>One of the main reasons behind the event is raising awareness about reducing young people\u2019s dependence on electronic devices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a Festival of Championships, while more than half of the championships are taking place simultaneously in Gjirokastra. Here we will host the National Men\u2019s Championship, the National Women\u2019s Championship, the All-Albanian Blitz and Rapid Championships, a competition for students from Gjirokastra\u2019s schools, as well as a chess simul with the most distinguished masters of this sport,\u201d says Kristaq Andoni.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAthletes and chess players from Kosovo are always eager to participate in tournaments like this all-Albanian event held in Gjirokastra, and they will certainly be present throughout the weekend,\u201d says Fatmir G\u00ebrguri.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very pleased to see chess growing in this way, bringing together children and enthusiasts from different regions. For the fourth year in a row, team championships are being held in different cities such as Saranda, Vlora, and now Gjirokastra. I really like this kind of expansion,\u201d says Albania\u2019s national chess champion, Eglantina Shabanaj.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a great thing for all of Gjirokastra that we managed to bring the National Chess Championship here. It is a celebration for our city,\u201d says chess player Armando \u00c7ani.<\/p>\n<p>Gjirokastra has always been a city passionate about chess, producing many prominent figures and well-known champions over the years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For about a week, the city of Gjirokastra has turned into the chess capital of Albania, hosting 200 participants from Albania and Kosovo. The event has attracted great interest, featuring a variety of chess disciplines in which competitors can take part. One of the main reasons behind the event is raising awareness about reducing young [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":81476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,1803],"tags":[243,151],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gjirokastra becomes the chess capital, 200 participants from Albania and Kosovo - Euronews Albania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/gjirokastra-becomes-the-chess-capital-200-participants-from-albania-and-kosovo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gjirokastra becomes the chess capital, 200 participants from Albania and Kosovo - Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For about a week, the city of Gjirokastra has turned into the chess capital of Albania, hosting 200 participants from Albania and Kosovo. The event has attracted great interest, featuring a variety of chess disciplines in which competitors can take part. 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